Judge arrested over 'dog attack'

A judge has been arrested and had her German shepherd dogs seized by police after a third alleged attack in a year

A judge has been arrested and had her dogs seized by police after a third alleged attack in a year.

Judge Beatrice Bolton, 57, was questioned and later bailed following an incident near her home on the outskirts of Rothbury, Northumberland, last week.

She has not sat at Newcastle Crown Court since December when she was convicted of failing to control her German shepherd Georgina and stormed out of Carlisle Magistrates' Court branding the decision a "f****** travesty".

She was fined £2,500 after Georgina attacked her neighbours' 20-year-old son, who was sunbathing in the garden which their two properties shared on May 31 last year.

Then the Royal Mail suspended deliveries to her home and neighbouring properties in April after postman Kenneth Auld said he was bitten. Judge Bolton was investigated and the Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to bring charges.

Last Wednesday, a 22-year-old man reported being bitten in the leg in the Whitton Bank area of Rothbury, where the judge lives.

Police arrested the judge the same day and took her two German shepherds "to assure public safety".

A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "Inquiries are ongoing and police have arrested a 57-year-old woman in connection with the incident. She has since been bailed. Police have taken action to assure public safety and these dogs have been removed."

Judge Bolton was once on good terms with her neighbours David and Anne Malia, but the two parties fell out over their shared gardens.

The neighbours complained last week after the judge split the gardens by putting up a fence without planning permission. She will be allowed to keep the fence up for two years to allow a hedge to grow in.